1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metadata distribution management system, a metadata distribution management apparatus, an individual metadata management apparatus, a client terminal, a metadata distribution management method, and a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a metadata is provided to digital contents, such as an image data, a music data, a video data, etc., which can be processed in information processing apparatuses, such as a computer, including display, reproduction, etc., so as to classify and manage the digital contents by utilizing the metadata.
For example, an object classification management method and system have been proposed in which the digital contents are classified and managed by utilizing the metadata which is an information data attached to the digital contents, and amount of feature of the digital contents (see Patent Document 1, for example). According to this system, the objects classified based on the amount of feature of the extracted feature, such as an image, music, colors in a web page, a shape, a pattern, which are extracted from the objects are managed together with the metadata given to the objects, so that the classification based on the features of the objects can be performed easily, and a large quantity of objects can efficiently be managed.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2002-259410
However, in the above-mentioned object classification management system, the metadata is used for classification management of the digital contents. The metadata is not used by a user who is going to acquire and use a digital content through a communications network.
Thus, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a metadata distribution management system, a metadata distribution management apparatus, an individual metadata management apparatus, a client terminal, a metadata distribution management method, and a computer program in which, in order for a user to use and acquire digital contents through a communications network, a plurality of metadata about the contents are packaged and provided to the user.